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Alexandria Travel Guide
Alexandria is the second-largest town in
Egypt. Alexandria was a Greco-Roman town at
the western end of the Mediterranean coast
of Egypt, founded by Alexander the Great. In
ancient times, the town was known for the
Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the 7
Wonders of the Ancient World) and the
Library of Alexandria (the largest library
in the ancient world).
In ancient times, Alexandria was one of the
most famous cities in the world. It was
founded around a small pharaonic town c. 331
BC by Alexander the Great. It remained
Egypt's capital for nearly a thousand years,
until the Muslim conquest of Egypt
The town of Alexandria was the renowned
capital of the Ptolemies, with several
monuments. Also, it was along these shores
that history took a tragic turn at the time
of Cleopatra, Octabian, Mark Antony and
Julius Caesar. Also, Alexandria was one city
thriving during the Ptolemiac and Roman
periods, however, the city had replaced
Memphis as the capital of Egypt. With its
gridded street plan, however it was
essentially a Greek rather than Egyptian ,
with a substantial population of Jews and
Greeks.
In last time the major monuments of the
Ptolemaic and Roman periods were the
Sarapeum, a temple dedicated to the god
Serapis, which may have housed part of the
library collection, the Caesarium (founded
by Cleopatra in honour of Mark Anthony), and
Kom es-Shawqafa, a labyrinth of rock cut
tombs dating to the first 2 centuries AD.
In the following centuries Alexandria
declined and in the 19th century it became a
small fishing village. In the 20th century
Alexandria recovered part of its lost
splendor. At the beginning of the 21st
century Alexandria has almost 5 million
inhabitants and it is attracting several
tourists thanks to its long history, its
nice beaches and the new works under
construction. The most important of these
works is the new library.
Actually, Alexadnria is linked to Cairo by 2
major highways and a railroad line. It's one
of the most notable summer resorts in the
Middle East, for, in addition to its
temperate winters, its beaches, with white
sands and magnificent scenery, stretch for
140 km along the Mediterranean Sea, from Abu
Qir, in the east to Al-Alamein and Sidi
Abdul Rahman, in the west.
Alexandria (Arabic:
الإسكندرية al-Iskandariyya; Greek: Ἀλεξάνδρεια), with a population of 4.1 million,
is the second-largest city in Egypt, and is
the country's largest seaport, serving about
80% of Egypt's imports and exports.
Alexandria is also an important tourist
resort. Alexandria extends about 32 km (20
mi) along the coast of the Mediterranean Sea
in north-central Egypt. It is home to the
Bibliotheca Alexandrina (the new Library),
It is an important industrial centre because
of its natural gas and oil pipelines from
Suez, another city in Egypt.
In ancient times, Alexandria was one of the
most famous cities in the world. It was
founded around a small pharaonic town c. 331
BC by Alexander the Great. It remained
Egypt's capital for nearly a thousand years,
until the Muslim conquest of Egypt in AD 641
when a new capital was founded at Fustat (Fustat
was later absorbed into Cairo). Alexandria
was known because of its lighthouse
(Pharos), one of the Seven Wonders of the
Ancient World; its library (the largest
library in the ancient world); and the
Catacombs of Kom el Shoqafa, one of the
Seven Wonders of the Middle Ages. Ongoing
maritime archaeology in the harbour of
Alexandria, which began in 1994, is
revealing details of Alexandria both before
the arrival of Alexander, when a city named
Rhacotis existed there, and during the
Ptolemaic dynasty.
From the late 19th century, it became a
major centre of the international shipping
industry and one the most important trading
centres in the world, both because it
profited from the easy overland connection
between the Mediterranean Sea and the Red
Sea, and the lucrative trade
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